By Dhiraj Kumar
New Delhi [India], July 31 : The Delhi High Court has refused to quash an FIR in a case of the death of a 5-year-old child who got crushed under a car, in lieu of a compensation of Rs. One lakh to his legal representatives. The High Court said it would be tantamount to sanctifying the blood money, which is not recognised in our legal system.
Noting that the accused arrived at a settlement with the legal representatives of the deceased, Justice Girish Kathpalia rejected the petition seeking quashing of FIR against the accused, saying the deceased child cannot be compensated in any manner and legal representatives have no rights to barter his death.
The case pertains to the death of a child in a road accident who was crushed under a car. The driver was allegedly driving in a drunken state.
An FIR was lodged in 2023 in Pahar Ganj police against the petitioner, Vipin Gupta, for rash and negligent driving, causing a collision with an e-rickshaw, resulting in the injury and death of a 5-year-old child.
Refusing to quash the FIR, Justice Kathpalia said, "In my considered view, quashing the FIR after approving such a settlement would be tantamount to sanctifying blood money, which is not
recognised by our legal system. No civilised society would approve of blood money."
" It is the deceased child who suffered injuries and pain, followed by loss of life. That deceased child cannot be compensated in any manner," Justice Kathpalia said in the oral judgement of July 30.
Justice Kathpalia held, "The legal representatives left behind by the deceased child have no moral or legal authority to barter away his life for money to be paid to them."
The High Court was told that the parties have arrived at a settlement in lieu of compensation for the child's death.
The court noted that according to the settlement arrived at between the petitioner and legal
representatives of the deceased child, a sum of Rs. 1,00,000 has been agreed upon by the parties as compensation to be paid by the petitioner to the legal representatives.
Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Manjeet Arya appeared for the State and opposed the plea.
The case of prosecution is that the petitioner, while driving his car in a rash and negligent manner, hit the e-rickshaw, due to which the e-rickshaw overturned and a five-year-old child got crushed under the same; and on being taken to the RML Hospital, the child was declared dead.
During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner tried to shift the blame and submitted that it was the e-rickshaw driver, who was drunk and caused the accident.
It was also submitted that there were six passengers in the e-rickshaw, though the permissible passenger load is only four. The petitioner was not driving his car in a rash and negligent manner.
This submission was opposed by the investigation officer, who was present in the court, by submitting that there is no such material on record. It was specifically submitted by the Investigating Officer that the driver of the e-rickshaw was not found under the influence of liquor.
"Rather, from the investigation file, it appears that after the accident, the petitioner was apprehended on the spot along with the offending car and was handed over to the police.
The court said that as far as the contention that the petitioner was not driving the car in a rash and negligent manner, I have examined the material on the investigation file, including the photographs.
"However, this would be a matter of trial, so it would not be appropriate for me to record my observations and opinion on this aspect," Justice Kathpalia said in the judgement.